Mask Mandate To Return In Cobb County Public Buildings

COBB COUNTY, GA — Face masks will be mandatory once again in Cobb County public facilities starting Friday, County Manager Jackie McMorris said in a Zoom meeting with members of the Cobb Legislative Delegation Tuesday.

The mandate extends to Cobb County employees as well as visitors, contractors and vendors. Those inside county facilities will be asked to wear a mask where they cannot socially distance and are in close spaces near others, a county news release said.

The announcement comes as COVID-19 cases spike across Georgia, with Cobb County labeled as "high risk for COVID-19 transmission" due to the case rate. As of Tuesday, the 14-day case rate per 100,000 Cobb residents is 649 cases. "High risk" is anything greater than 100 cases per 100,000 county residents.

“As the result of what is going on across the nation, the region, and of course here in Cobb, we’ve had to make some tough decisions on what we are going to do here in Cobb County government,” McMorris said.

The Marietta Daily Journal first reported the news Tuesday. Public health officials, including Cobb and Douglas Public Health Director Janet Memark, say the delta variant is responsible for the latest spike in cases.

“We’re in the second month of this and it just does not seem to be going away,” Memark said. “Right now we’re seeing younger people being hospitalized, and we continue to see hospitals that are dangerously low on critical care beds and medical-surgical beds."

The mask mandate does not affect outdoor Cobb facilities, including parks and the amphitheater. Social distancing will be reimplemented at the county's public meetings.